The man recently celebrated by the creation of a memorial fund in his honor would probably have shied away from public acknowledgement of his contributions.
Dr. Howard Daniel spent more than 40 years as a classic family physician in East Oakland, caring for community members with little access to quality medical treatment, delivering nearly 5,000 babies and quietly becoming a revered local figure.
But this man, who retired in 2012 at 79 and passed away in 2022, one week shy of his 89th birthday, simply believed he was following the path of service. Howard Daniel’s mother, his son Kent Daniel said, was a deeply religious woman to whom “service” was a key tenet. She passed this belief on to her son, who remained committed to it his whole life—and expected no adulation for it.
After graduating from Howard University College of Medicine, he chose to practice in East Oakland. Some of his peers, his son said, chose to go to Los Angeles and La Jolla. But not Howard.
“He was a quiet storm,” Kent said. He was also beloved. Kent said that as a child with his father, “We ran into people all the time who said, ‘You delivered me, you delivered my baby.’ They went out of their way to acknowledge what he’d done.”
Life with a dedicated doctor meant his children valued the time they spent with him. “He was on-call 24/7. He would make his rounds at the hospital on Sundays, and take us with him. We’d wait in the doctors’ lounge … and eat sweets. We loved it!” Kent said. His older brother sometimes accompanied their father on house calls, which he continued to do for many years, and then, once the kids were older, they all worked in their father’s office.
“We got paid!” Kent said, chuckling. “The relationship we had with the workers in the office was a joyful experience.”
One of those workers was Mary Washington. Now 78, Washington spent 38 years as an office employee; first as a receptionist, then working in the back office, then as the office manager. “It was a family atmosphere,” she said. Her own children also worked in the office, “and it was excellent training for the future … they have all since been fully employed for more than 20 years,” she said.
Washington agreed that Howard was what we would now call a workaholic. “He returned all of his calls,” she said, “or I returned them. He would [find a time] to get an [emergency] patient in.”
“He met patients where they were. They felt they could trust him,” said fellow physician Dr. Norman Banks in a tribute video. Banks noted that the trust issue is key in encouraging patients to come in for regular care.
In several ways, Howard was ahead of his time in his medical philosophy. An avid runner who ran marathons and even triathlons, he often recommended exercise programs to his patients for their overall health, Washington said. He suggested a walking program for her, and later, swimming, which she still occasionally does.
He recognized the importance of teaching children to swim. According to the CDC, “African-American children ages 5 to 19 drown in swimming pools at rates 5.5 times higher than those of white children in the same age range.”
Howard was also not a “pill doctor,” Washington stressed. She related the story of a woman who came in for a consultation on diet. Howard recommended a reduced-calorie regime. “She said she wanted diet pills instead,” Washington said. “He said, ‘You’re in the wrong office.’”
Howard merged his practice with East Oakland’s LifeLong Medical Care in 2008, creating LifeLong’s Howard Daniel Health Center.
LifeLong’s deputy director, Lucinda Bazile, first met Howard in 2007. “He had been trying to recruit an African American provider to take over his practice. He really cared about his patients,” she said. Ultimately, the connection with LifeLong, which serves an area stretching from Rodeo to Oakland and shares Howard’s priorities of caring for an underserved community, proved a good match.
Statistics provided by LifeLong show why Howard’s practice, and now the Howard Daniel Health Center, are so vital to East Oakland:
• Approximately 29.78% of residents are living at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level in the East Oakland service area, and approximately 12.83% of residents are living in poverty (below 100% of the FPL).
• A majority (80.4%) of the East Oakland service area is a racial/ethnic minority. Out of the 5,406 patients served at the East Oakland Health Center and Howard Daniel Health Center, 71.9% identify as a racial/ethnic minority.
• 21.7% of the patients served are over 65.
• Approximately 30.97% of adults in the service area are obese.
• Approximately 17.6% of adults in the East Oakland service area do not have a usual source of care. Over 20% adults in the 94621 and 94603 zip codes lack a usual source of care.
• Nearly 30% of adults in the service area have been diagnosed with hypertension, and 11.19% have been diagnosed with diabetes.
When LifeLong decided to launch a memorial fund in Howard’s honor, Bazile said, these statistics were key to the decision to devote initial funding towards health-care education about chronic conditions, such as hypertension and diabetes. [“This is] a way to continue his legacy,” she said, “as an avid runner, who he was as a person. If we educate the mother, we are educating the family.” The fund has a modest initial fundraising goal of $25,000.
LifeLong’s continuing mission also aligns with another of Howard’s values. “Our mission is to serve everyone, regardless of their ability to pay or immigration status. People [in this community] have so many financial hardships. Here, folks are cared for and valued,” Bazile said. She said that LifeLong conducts monthly meetings with a patient group, asking what is working and what is not within their system.
Howard worked with the San Francisco-based nonprofit Delancey Street Foundation to provide two free physicals a month to people being helped by it. “This was important because a physical is necessary for admittance to a number of programs,” Washington said.
As the Howard Daniel Memorial Fund grows and moves forward, Kent would like to see it fund excursions for East Oakland residents into the open spaces of the East Bay Regional Park District, where his father regularly ran trails, especially in the East Bay hills. “That would celebrate his healthy lifestyle,” said Kent—as well as his goal of encouraging his patients to adopt healthy lifestyles as well. A bench in the hills, within Berkeley’s Tilden Regional Park, on top of Grizzly Peak, commemorates Howard.
Ultimately, Howard’s compassion will be most remembered.
“We got Christmas bonuses. He shared his reimbursements with us. He treated us like human beings,” Washington said. “He was in my corner.”
According to those who remember Dr. Howard Daniel, he was in everyone’s corner.
Donations to the Howard Daniel Memorial Fund can be made at lifelongmedical.org/donate.
This is a wonderful story about my father’s life. Unfortunately I did not follow in my father’s footsteps as a physician but he taught me my sister, and brothers all he knew! Sending my donation now, and I will be passing this story to all my golf students and friends in the Bay Area!! Thank you for sharing this information about Dr Howard Daniel. As mentioned in the article he steered away from publicizing his accomplishments, and it runs in the family.